A senior citizen from the Lake Independence area appeared in court today to answer to four criminal charges: one count of damage to property, two counts of aggravated assault upon two police officers and one count of trespassing in premises. The events leading up to the charges date back to early January, where 61 year old Gertrude Hunter first appeared on the media to plead for assistance, claiming that she was being wrongfully evicted from a property she says her late husband had left for her.
Hunter is accused of assaulting a police inspector and breaking the cell phone of another police officer while they attempted to evict her. Hunter appeared unrepresented in court where she pleaded not guilty to the charges. She was offered bail in the sum of $1,000 plus one surety of the same amount which she managed to meet. Hunter gave an emotional account to a court reporter today regarding her current situation. She is set to appear back in court on March 18th 2024.
Gertrude Hunter, Eviction Victim
"So, when I went home there, they have a lot of things out on the street side already. They got some of the things on the street side. And I went and try talk and they don't want to hear anything from me."
"All they said Miss you need to get out of this property. And you need to go to the station. And I tell them, I said, the news people are coming right now. And I'm not going anywhere until the news people come."
"That was this young lady, Miss Goody. She wants to charge me for a phone. She bring a false paper to me. And I gone to take the paper from her, right."
"But I had photocopy the paper already. She bring that on the 23rd of December, 2023 and tell me, I must get out of this house by the...."
"I didn't do her nothing. They are the ones who are roughing me up. They are charging me for assault. How will I assault 2 persons who have my 2 hands hold - they didn't give me a chance to talk and explain myself. They say that Miss Pauline McFadzean is charging me for damage to property and I went to the Ombudsman. They said in 3 weeks the report would come back down for me to come to court."
"Before the report came, the police came and harass me in less than a month."
